McConnell camp weighed branding Judd 'unbalanced'

Double furor over campaign recording

12:40 AM,
Apr. 10, 2013

Jesse Benton, campaign manager for Sen. Mitch McConnell, reads a statement to the press about the secret recordings released of McConnell and some of his aides discussing how to attack actress Ashley Judd if she decided to run for McConnell's seat.

Written by

Joseph Gerth
The Courier-Journal

With U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in the room, his campaign staffers laughed as they discussed ways to exploit Ashley Judd's mental health battles and to attack his other potential foes, according to an audio recording published by Mother Jones magazine.

In response, McConnell accused left-wing groups of "Watergate-style" bugging to obtain the taped conversations, and his campaign said it had reported the incident to the FBI. His campaign did not dispute the recording's authenticity.

Mother Jones denied that the recording, made during a Feb. 2 meeting at McConnell's Louisville campaign ...